Leaps of Faith

{Summary: Youri begins having doubts about Ichigo's line of work. She has before, but why can't she shake the feeling this time? Will it end their marriage, or will she stand by her man? * language, violence, and dramatic themes*}

Youri had never felt more amazingly spent. She and Ichigo always had sex. Quick sex, passionate sex, revenge sex, angry sex, kinky sex, 'I missed you' sex, shower sex... But it was exceedingly rare that they had the time to have sex like that- the kind that couldn't be called sex anymore. They had made love. As she stared at his still sleeping face, she couldn't help but smile. He looked like a little boy when he was asleep. So cute, and worry free, just relaxed.

Youri peeked up at the clock.

7:45 a.m.

She sighed. She looked down at Ichigo,as he slept beside her. She hated running off while he was asleep. It felt too much like a one night stand. (Even though that was one of their favorite role playing fantasies.)

I should go to work. If I have time to make it, then I should go...

She quickly got showered, , but paused to make an omelet. She put it in the microwave and jotted down a small note for him on the nightstand.

Breakfast in microwave.

See you for lunch at my office

- Youri

Youri tried her hardest to get dressed as quietly as possible. She got her pencil skirt, suit jacket, and jewelry on, then pulled her hair up into a neat little bun. She grabbed her purse and keys, and a pair of high heels to change into in the car, and went to give her very sexy, and very worn out husband a soft kiss before she left. She looked at the clock again.

8:48a.m.

"Oh crap. I have to leave now!"

She ran, shoes in hand to the garage, and climbed into the drivers seat of her white BMW. She fumbled with the garage door opener, and missed the button at least twice before the door began to roll upward, revealing the moderate drizzle that had already saturated the road. She frowned.

"Oh great, now I have to speed through the rain to get to work on time. Dammit Ichigo! We have to stop having sex during the work week!" She thought about that for a moment, and burst into laughter. Yeah right, like she could ever resist those brown eyes, or that deep, velvety, voice... Or those strong arms... Or that orange hair... When she realized that she'd sat there daydreaming about him, she shooke her head, and laid it against the steering wheel in defeat.

"How is it that you turn me- a valedictorian, a maxima cum laude, and someone with two masters and two PHD's- into a giant horny mess?" Even though she didn't say it out loud, she thought it.

Because you're the only one that ever could.

That thought put a huge smile on her face. Even as she sped through yellow lights, cut off some dude in a Honda, and flew down the highway at seventy in a fifty-five mile per hour zone, the smile remained. It was gone for a minute when she saw a taxi in her parking spot, but returned when she saw a woman in labor being escorted from it by, presumably, her husband. After she parked her car, she immediately went to help the couple.

They were bout the same age as her, she noticed. Somehow, they felt really familiar. The woman was very petite- like half a foot shorter than Youri- with big blue eyes and shoulder length black hair. Her companion was very tall- maybe taller than Ichigo. She noticed his very... unique body art and bright red hair, which sat messily all over his head. They were both still in their pajamas, so she figured they'd rushed out of bed to get to the hospital.

"I am Dr. Kamachii. How long have you been in labor?" She said, while flashing her hospital I.D., and effectively hiding her accent.

"My water broke half an hour ago." she panted.

Youri looked at her companion, who looked rather scared. And noticed he looked rather familiar. "You're the proud papa I presume?" She said kindly to the red head, who stood dutifully by his lady's side. He nodded, and from his expression, it was probably best he didn't speak.

"How's the pain?" Youri asked, while escorting them inside.

"Not too ba- OH MY GOD!" she snapped, and squeezed her man's arm for dear life.

"OW! Jesus, Rukia!" He yelped. A devilish look came over her face, and she directed it to him.

"Shut. The hell up, Renji. You did this to me, and since you're at fault, you should just shut up and take it like a man!"

A light bulb went off in Youri's mind.

"Wait, your names wouldn't be... Kuchiki and Abarai, would they?" Between yelps of pain the man nodded. "I remember you two. You were Ichigo's friends!" At that, they both gave her a confused look. "It's me, Youri. We used to eat lunch together in school." They still looked puzzled. "I was valedictorian, class president, and captain of the math team." When they shook their heads, she sighed. So much for having an identity. "I was Ichigo's girlfriend."

"OH!" They both said in realization.

"Oh yeah! I remember you now. I could never forget a body like yours." Renji said. After a slap to the head from his baby's momma, he amended his statement. "I meant, I could never forget somebody like you. How did that work out anyway, you and Kurosaki? I still can't believe he could handle those tits- I-I-I mean, your wit."

Rukia was giving him a look of pure hatred at the moment, but he knew better than to make eye contact.

"Yeah." Rukia began. "It was kind of shocking that you two were dating, I mean you didn't have a lot in common. I would've thought you and Ishida would have dated, since you were both honor students... Then again, considering your body shape, you were probably a little too much for Ishida."

Youri smiled.

"Well, we were academic rivals, so there was no chance of us ever dating... After school, Ichigo and I went our separate ways. He went to Tokyo University, and I went to Hokkaido University in Sapporo." For a moment she drifted into the past, and remembered that day. She'd never felt so awful! She was the one to say that they should just move on. Even though she couldn't see it, or hear it in his voice, she saw the heartbreak in his eyes when he shrugged and said "If that's what you want". She remembered how she'd held on all week, until her roommate was gone, and then spent half the day crying. How could he just shrug it off? Had their time together mattered that little to him?

Then she smiled, and told the story.

"We were apart for about a month, and then I walked out of my dormitory one morning, and he was outside. He retook the college entrance examination so that he could go to Hokkaido with me."

It all came washing back. The way he stood, leaning against the brick wall of the girls dormitories, his hands in his pockets, and determination on his face. She hadn't seen him at first, and went to greet one of her male classmates with a smile. They were chatting about the law of great numbers, when he suddenly smirked. She didn't remember what he said, but it had pissed her off enough for the to slap the hell out of him. He'd raised his hand to slap her back, but never got the chance. There was a flash of orange, and her classmate was on the ground, face in the grass and a foot on the back of his head, and Ichigo holding his arm behind his back. She remembered him yelling, and threatening that poor boy's life for even thinking about putting his hands on his woman.

After she pulled him off of her classmate, he'd thrown her over his shoulder, and taken off running, even with her protests. He brought her to his apartment, where he explained his presence, apologized for letting her go without a fight, and they'd reconciled their relationship. And, well you can use your imagination.

Youri didn't come out of her dreamy state, even when she departed from the maternity ward, went back to her office, and began filing paperwork. Even while she was yelling at someone for something they'd screwed up, she did it with a loving smile on her face. She didn't snap out of it, until her secretary called.

"Excuse me, Doctor? Chairman Ishida is here for you."

"Oh, well, what line is he on?"

"Um, ma'am... He's here in person. He just got in the elevator-"

"Oh SHIT!" She exclaimed. "Orihime, don't you think It was kind of important to tell me my boss's boss was here?"

"I'm sorry. It's just, I think of him as my father-in-law, not my boss's-boss's-boss."

At that moment, Youri's office door opened, and she hung up the phone immediately, before making a low bow.

"Chairman Ishida. What a surprise."She strained.

"Please, spare me the pleasantries. I can tell from the look on your face, you aren't happy to see me. Then again, I could imagine why."He didn't smile, and his voice was like ice all the time. "I'm afraid this particular visit is purely business."

Youri tried not to look at him. It made her feel sick to her stomach.

"Just tell me what you want, so we can get this over with."

"Why the rush? You're not... intimidated are you?" He let a small smile cross his lips, but it wasn't a nice one. His smile was filled with cruel amusement. "That doesn't matter. I came here to give you some good news... You're a wonderful doctor. Possibly better than any of the others on the staff. And the fact that you have become so proficient at such a young age is very impressive... And that is not something I say lightly."

"So what? Are you going to give me a gold star? Get to it."

"My, my. You're still so impatient. You haven't changed at all in eleven years." Youri was silent. What could she say against him? "If you must have it your way... I've come to offer you the position of Medical Dean at Karakura Hospital." He stepped closer. "But, It's going to cost you."

She narrowed her eyes. "What?"

"I want you to divorce Ichigo Kurosaki immediately. I figured you would look at me like that." He chuckled cruelly. "He's holding you back."

"From what, your bedroom?" She growled.

"Don't act so high and mighty. It's not as if you haven't been there a handful of times already- and frankly, I you aren't nearly as the woman you were back then." He smirked. "You are of no interest to me." She looked away.

Youri kept her mouth shut, and her eyes glued to her desk.

"Don't worry, you won't be fired, and your promotion will still take effect- I'm just one of the chairmen, remember? The vote was unanimous amongst us, and you are still of use." He turned to leave. "Before I go, I want you to really consider your situation. You and Ichigo Kurosaki began dating eleven years ago. You married eight years ago, and yet nothing has changed." He paused at the door. "Think about it. Can you trust a husband who disappears for weeks at a time, with no warning and no explanation?"

She shot out of her seat.

"He-He's an Agent of the FBI! He has no control over-"

The older man snorted.

"You honestly believe that boy is an FBI agent? That's just pathetic. Just because he was first to offer doesn't mean you have to settle... You have my number. Contact me when you get tired of being taken for a fool."

And with that, he left her in her office. Alone, wounded, and filled with turmoil. She took her seat again, but couldn't sit still. She opened her desk drawer and pulled out her old friend: a carton of cigarettes. She promised Ichigo she would stop- and she had. But right now, she needed one. She hid the package in her purse, to keep anyone from seeing, got into the elevator and rode it up to the roof. She Lit up, an stood at the protective fence. Though considering how old and rusty it was, protective wasn't really the right word. She flashed back to the past.

It was a stormy night in Seattle. Thunder and lightning and rain had come from nowhere on her way to the take her father his dinner at the docks. She was allowed to do things like that, now that she was fifteen. She ran through the rain with no umbrella, barely able to see, until headlights surrounded her. She held up her hands in time to see a limousine come to a screeching halt just a few yards away. She stood there in shock. Had she really almost died? Thank goodness she hadn't. Her mother would never forgive her. She vaguely remembered hearing someone yelling at her about being in the road in a rainstorm... And then, she fainted.

When she came to, hours later, she wasn't in the street where she fainted, or even her house. She was In hospital bed. No, she hadn't been hit by the car, but the driver had insisted on taking her to the hospital anyway... Well, the driver's boss had insisted, and had offered to foot the bill as well. As if he'd been watching and waiting, an older man strode into her hospital room. She'd been hypnotized by his silver hair and intense eyes, even though this man was old enough to be her father. That didn't change the fact her was very handsome. That was the day she was introduced to Ryuken Ishida, and in many ways, the last day she saw through the eyes of a child.

After apologizing for nearly running her over, he'd explained that he'd offered to sponsor her overseas studies, and that her mother had agreed already.

"You didn't hit me, so you don't owe me anything. Why would you do this?" She'd asked.

"Your mother wouldn't stop yelling about how you were too intelligent to be run over. I asked her how intelligent you were, and I was impressed by what I heard... She broke into tears when she said the medical bill would probably deplete what little she'd put away for your college education. As someone who is very intellectually gifted, but whose parent had no money for my college education, I sympathize. So, I'll be paying for this hospital visit and funding your college education."

"In exchange for what?"

"You are to study abroad in Japan, starting next semester, and you must attend the same college I went to."

"That's all?"

No... That wasn't all. Not by a long shot. The moment they were overseas, he'd seduced her... If you could call It that. It hadn't been seductive, or sexy, or any of the words that comes to mind when one thinks about seduction. Was he good? Hell yes. Youri wasn't a whore, but she was no virgin. She'd had sex with only one partner before that point. She knew what she liked, and Ryuken had done none of those things. There was no eye contact, no kissing, no afterglow, no cuddling. Just pleasurable sex, but never enough to make her come. Not even once.

Ichigo was the only one who had ever taken her there. He made it his business to make her come first, so that she could come more than once, or at least at the same time he did. They were seventeen the first time they slept together, and according to him, she was his first... Where had he learned to touch a woman like that? To kiss there, or thrust at that particular angle?

When he asked her out at the end of freshman year, she had no reason to refuse. She couldn't say 'Sorry, I'm sleeping with Ishida's father because he's paying my college tuition'. She told Ryuken that very day that someone had asked her out, and she agreed to deter suspicion. He was fine with that. But the moment she mentioned Ichigo's name, he'd gotten angry, without showing it in his face or voice. But, he'd broken up with her, if you can call it that. He promised that he was still going to honor his agreement, but swore he would never touch her as long as she was dealing with 'that boy'.

"It's rather sad. You could have simply rejected his offer, but instead you have chosen to do something so whorish I don't have words for it... You're quite pathetic."

"You bastard... I was only fifteen. You didn't force me, but just because I was fully developed didn't make me a woman." She felt like crying, but she couldn't. She didn't have time. She and Ichigo were going to meet for lunch in a little while. Her eyes would still be red and puffy, and the moment he looked at her and saw she'd been crying, he wouldn't let it rest. He would corner her, and then take her in his arms, and hold her close until she told him the truth. In the past, she'd blamed her crying fits on her fear of storms, or on the mudslide one had caused when she was young, which buried half of her family alive, and damaged her mind...

But, she couldn't blame Ryuken Ishida. She hadn't refused when he said things he shouldn't have said to a fifteen year old, or when she'd followed him upstairs, let him pull off her clothes, and thrust into her, for the first of many times, without preamble, and no foreplay. He'd been careful not to injure her, or leave any obvious injuries, but he wasn't at all tender... She'd been a living blow-up doll.

On the rooftop that day she sighed. She could have worked at any hospital in the world, but she couldn't bare to force Ichigo to leave his family. Sure, she had family back in the United States, but she'd gotten used to only seeing them a few times a year. They could have moved to another town, but his influence wouldn't disappear. He'd know where she was practicing medicine, no matter where she went.

And then, a voice spoke to her.

"He has a point you know. Ichigo is always running off without a word."

Youri didn't need to look up. She knew who's voice it was.

"He goes fight crime, and protect people. That was his dream, and I support him, even if it means I'll be alone sometimes."

"You're going to choose to be unhappy?" The voice condescended. "That's stupid."

"You don't understand! I...I can't lose him. He's the one I can't be without, and I am his."

"Are you sure? What about that girl, Rukia? She was really close to him back then, and so was Orihime... And the class reunion was the week you were in Hong Kong. He had no trouble going without you, and was an hour late getting you from the airport...You know, if she's giving birth today... then the reunion would have been about the time she got pregnant."

"NO! Don't even suggest something so vile!" She almost shouted, forcing her companion to silence themself. "Ichigo wouldn't do that. Not something like that."

"Because he's so trustworthy, right? Idiot! You're just another weak willed woman. Ryuken was right. You are pathetic. You should just climb this rickety fence, and jump."

Youri stared at the rust on the chain linked fence and thought.

"What would dying solve? Nothing. And I love Ichigo too much to do that!"

She leaned on the fence so that she could see down the street and in the direction he would come from. "He's coming. He'll be here at 12:45. He's never late for our lunch dates." She glanced at her watch. It read 1:26. She shook her head. "He's... worn out from the trip, and from this morning... He's coming. You'll see." She leaned onto the fence a little more.

She heard her companion sigh. "You really are sad. Let me put you out of your misery."

Ichigo woke with a start. He had been mid sentence with Zangetsu and his inner hollow, when a strange feeling brought him back into consciousness. Their conversation disturbed him deeply, and the restriction of spiritual pressure wasn't helping. It was like someone put a fence around his energy. It was like a wild animal in a cage- surging against the barriers. It made him uneasy, but Zangetsu's warning hadn't helped at all.

"The soul king has tightened his grip on us all. That means that in every world- Soul Society, hell, Hueco Mundo, the Precipice world, and the world of the living- have been sealed off from each other. No spirit can get in or out."

"So soul reapers, along with the souls they are purifying and sending to soul society, hollows, and anything else are all just stuck where they are?"

"Precisely. It is likely that communications have been cut between the worlds as well. As a result, it is now much easier for hollows that are already here to find you and track your spiritual pressure. This includes the very potent traces of it which you have left on your wife. It's best you take your soul reaper form and trail her until the worlds are reconnected, and there are less hollows lingering."

"Yeah, follow good old juicy-jiggly around. I don't mind watching that!" His inner hollow licked his lips. It took everything Ichigo had to ignore him. "You know what you should do? Unbutton sugar tits' shirt while you're following her. She'll freak out, and think her boobs got bigger... Or better yet, wait until she's in the shower, and -"

Ichigo whirled around, and gave his inner hollow a look that made him stop talking all together.

"Why is this happening in the first place? It seems like a lot of trouble, and its dangerous for everyone in every world."

"Ichigo, when the soul king tightens his grip, and closes the worlds-"

And then he awoke. He looked at the clock and saw the time. 12:50

"Oh man, I have to go meet Youri at the hospital, and it's my turn to bring lunch."

Ichigo took a quick shower, and put on the first thing he saw- jeans a t-shirt and a hoodie. His hair was still wet when he got into his car- not that it mattered. It got spiky on its own. He decided to grab fast food on the way, so he wouldn't have to be much later. Parking wasn't difficult to find on this day, but that was compensated for by a crowd of people, who were all gathered around the entrance he always used to go up to her office. As he got closer he could make out pieces of the commotion.

"Oh my god!"

"I don't know, she was just lying here!"

"Get a doctor!"

All of those comments began to affect him for some reason. As he got closer, he noticed Orihime, sitting on the ground, looking rather pale. He walked over to her.

"Oi, Orihime. What's going on? You look awful."

She looked up at him, and paled a little more. Her mouth opened, then closed, and then she began to cry. Now he was even more worried.

"Come on, what's wrong? Did you and Uryuu have a fight?"

She shook her head.

"Ichigo... Oh Ichigo!" She fell onto his chest, soaking it with her tears. "Youri...She's dead."

Ichigo shook his head. He must have misheard her.

"I'm sorry. What?"

She took a deep breath. "Youri went up to the roof. She had a meeting with the chairman, and went up there to smoke afterwards-She thinks I don't know, but she goes up there to smoke a few times a month, even though she quit...The safety fence on the roof-it's rusted and... she leaned on it. The bearings snapped and it fell... and... so did Youri." She looked up at him, barely able to move. "I saw her falling. My desk faces that window." she pointed to a window on the eight floor. "The building is eleven stories... She fell from roof and... Youri is dead!"

Ichigo couldn't comprehend it. Youri was... dead. Just like that?... No! No! He wouldn't accept that. It just couldn't be true.

"Why... what kind of person lies like that? Huh? You think it's funny!"

"Ichigo, it's not a lie. Go... Go look for yourself."She managed, pointing shakily in the direction of the crowd. He walked briskly towards the crowd, and felt his heart pounding with ever step. He nudged his way through to the front, but wasn't prepared for what he saw.

Less than five feet away, Youri laid on the sidewalk. One of her high heels dangled from the tip of her toe, the other had gone mussing. Her body looked broken. Both of her legs, and one of her arms was broken, and the angle of her wrist made it clear it was shattered as well. She was on her stomach, her beautiful eyes were wide open, seeing nothing, and a pool of blood flowed from beneath her head and chest. Her bun had somehow stayed intact.

This awful sight made him drop their food. He fell on his knees beside her, gently shaking her shoulder, as if it would wake her.

"Youri? Youri! Are you okay? Please answer me!" He frowned "Youri, this isn't funny.. cut it out!" He shook her harder. "Damnit, no! Wake up!" He yelled. When he retracted his hand, he saw her blood had stained it, and lost his charade.

There was no denying it.

Youri was dead.

He held her body to his, as he broke down. He saw a drop of water on her cheek and thought it was rain, but then he realized it was his own tears. This was the first time that he'd ever cried in the presence of anyone, since his mother died. He hadn't ever shed tears in battle, not even when his wrist had been intentionally broken, or when his heart had been pierced.

"Who did this? Who the hell did this? Whoever you are, I swear I will kill you!" He screamed into the crowd. He couldn't hold his anger. Not with her dead body in his arms. He couldn't do anything...